Search function for portable navigation device

ABSTRACT

A personal navigation device is set out including a display, memory, a processor, a wireless signal receptor and a user input receiver. The memory includes several destination identifiers indicative of a number of recently visited destinations. A database is also included, the database itself including digitized map data and descriptive data identifying features represented within the digitized map data. The personal navigation device also includes software capable of performing navigation between a current location determined from the wireless signals received and a destination at least partially identified by said user input. The software further includes a facility for displaying one or more categories of destination which when selected causes the display of one or more destination identifiers of the recently visited destinations of that category in list format, and for performing a search within the descriptive data representative of the particular destination category in response to the user input.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application hereby claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) on each of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Nos. 60/879,523 filed Jan. 10, 2007, 60/879,549 filed Jan. 10, 2007, 60/879,553 filed Jan. 10, 2007, 60/879,577 filed Jan. 10, 2007, 60/879,599 filed Jan. 10, 2007, 60/879,529 filed Jan. 10, 2007, 60/879,601 filed Jan. 10, 2007, the entire contents of each of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. The content of the aforementioned is herein incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to an improved search function, and more specifically to an improved search function for a portable navigation device (PND) which possesses a screen for information display and which enables user selection of one or more items displayed thereon to provide an input for said PND.

Portable navigation devices (PNDs) typically include a processor, memory (both ROM and RAM), a display, wireless signal reception means, and operate under the control of a software operating system which:

-   -   provides the various navigation and ancillary functions provided         by the device,     -   allows for user input either through a touch-sensitive screen or         other input means, and,     -   processes user input, along with wirelessly received signals, to         cause the display of information for simply, quickly and         effectively achieving the navigation and ancillary functions.

In this regard, it is common for PNDs to maintain lists in memory of the most recent destinations entered by the user and to which navigation has previously been performed. This functionality can extend to cities, points of interest (POIs), addresses, road intersections, categories of any of these, and indeed any information which the user enters which is indicative of a destination to which navigation may subsequently be desired.

In particular, modern PNDs include digital map data, along with one or more databases containing descriptive data identifying every road, street, motorway, postcode, and POI appearing on the digitally represented map. The user interface provided by the operating system software, or a further program executing on the operating system software, may provide a facility whereby a user can cause a menu to be displayed including a navigation option, which when selected provides a number of different destination setting options. These options include selecting a city, an intersection, an address, a POI, or in certain instances, specific latitude and longitude coordinates, and the user interface may, for one or more of these options, offer the facility to select from a list of most recently visited or entered destinations, as well as a means for entering alphanumeric characters on-screen, which may be displayed in conjunction with an excerpt of the most recently visited list, or may be displayed separately therefrom.

The user entry of alphanumeric characters is of course the primary source of data for the device, as addresses, postcodes, cities and the like are identified in the device databases by such characters. In the case of cities, the user is typically requested to enter the first few characters of the name of the city, whereupon the software performs a search in the city name database for matching names. The type of search may be a simple “begins with” type search, in which only cities having names beginning with the characters entered by the user are displayed, or the search may be a more advanced search, such as a “contains” search, possibly combined with the “begins with” search, the execution of which provides results having city names containing (and beginning with) the user-entered characters. Other search strategies may of course be applicable.

This search function is performed as each character is entered, the search results are updated accordingly, and the set of results displayed in scrollable list format. Of course, as the display screens of PNDs tend to be small (typically less than 20 cm square), the portion of the screen dedicated to the display of the list will also be small, and therefore means are also displayed on screen which allow the user to scroll through the list, such as simple “up” and “down” on-screen arrow buttons. Any contact the user makes with the screen in the region of said buttons causes the display of later or earlier items in the sorted list.

One disadvantage of this operation is that the entry of alphanumeric characters causes immediate execution of the database search, and the concomitant display of the results without regard for the separate list of the most recently visited or entered destination.

It is an object of this invention to overcome this disadvantage.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, there is provided a PND comprising a display, memory, processing means, wireless signal reception means, and means for receiving user input, said memory including at least a predetermined number of destination identifiers indicative of a number of recently visited destinations, and one or more databases containing digitized map data and descriptive data identifying features represented within said digitized map data, said PND including software capable of performing navigation between a current location determined from the wireless signals received, and a destination at least partially identified by said user input, said software including a facility for displaying one or more destination categories which when selected causes the display of one or more entries from a list of the recently visited destinations of that category, and for performing a search within the descriptive data representative of the particular destination category in response to said user input,

Characterized in that a user input of one or more alphanumeric characters made during the display of said one or more most recently visited destinations of a particular category causes a first search to be made of the descriptive data based on the user input, and a second search to be made of the list of most recently visited destinations, the results from both searches being combined for display in list format so as to be ultimately selectable by said user.

Most preferably, the searches result in subsets of the list of most recently visited destinations and of the database of the descriptive data, the subsets being those entries therein which include, or further preferably, begin with the user input characters.

Preferably, if the user enters three or more characters, the software reverts to the display of only information retrieved from the database of descriptive data which includes the characters entered.

Most preferably, the software causes the display of the combined searches in an expandable list format atop which are provided matching most recently visited destinations from the first search followed by matching descriptive data of the particular destination type from the database, said list being further preferably scrollable when expanded in the case where the list contains more entries than can be displayed on the screen.

In the case where there is no match between the user-entered characters and the list of most recently visited destinations, the software merely displays the results from the search of descriptive data if there are matching records, or a warning if no records match the user input characters.

In a most preferred embodiment, a new combined list is temporarily stored in memory resulting from the union between the results of the first and second searches.

In accordance with a second aspect of the invention there is provided a method of operating a PND as described above, and in a further aspect of the invention there is provided a computer program comprising computer program code means adapted to perform all the steps of the method, when run on a computer. Additionally, the invention extends to a computer program when embodied on or in a computer readable medium.

It is to be mentioned that the categories of destination type may be any one of: POIs, street names, cities, towns, villages, addresses, postcodes, or a combination of these, such as “all categories”, or “all cities, towns and villages”.

In a particularly preferred arrangement, it may be desirable to store the cities, towns and villages most recently visited when an address, postcode or POI within a one of these localities is selected by a user when navigation thereto is required. Most preferably, only a list of most recently visited cities, towns and villages is maintained, and subjected to a search when the user enters one or more characters.

A specific description of the invention will now be provided with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1-8 show various different screen shots of the user interface of a PND device adapted for the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring firstly to FIG. 1, there is shown a first menu screen 2. of a PND which has been caused by a user to enter a navigation “destination entry” mode. The screen displays a number of icons 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, some of which may be disabled depending on current configuration of the PND, and provide a means whereby a user can navigate simply to a pre-entered “home” destination (4), a list of “favourite” destinations (6), a new address (8), a “recent destination” (10) or a list of many such destinations, and a “Point of Interest” (12) or a list thereof. FIG. 2 shows a second menu screen 14 which results from a user selection of the “address” icon 8. As can be seen in the figure, a further set of icons 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, is displayed, allowing the entry of further information regarding a new destination to which the user desires to navigate. The icons have text labels “City”, “Street and house number”, “Postcode”, “Crossing or Intersection”, and “Spoken Address” respectively, and such labels are indicative of the data entry required in the following user screens presented when such options are chosen.

To illustrate the invention, the screen display 26 in FIG. 3 is that shown when the “City” icon 16 is selected. In FIG. 3, an on-screen keyboard 28 is shown, together with an excerpt 30 of a list of the most recently visited cities in alphabetical order, a text entry field 32 in which alphanumeric characters typed in by the user appear, a country indicator 34, and a control 36 which when selected by the user causes the display of an expanded list of most recently visited cities, as shown in FIG. 4. On the screen display 37 shown in this Figure, scroll button controls 38, 40 are provided to allow the user to scroll through the complete list of most recently visited cities.

Referring to FIG. 5, a further screen shot 42 is shown where the user has entered the characters “Li” in the text entry field by touching the relevant portions of the screen beneath which the control character buttons 44 “L” and 46 “I” appear. Most preferably, the PND of the present invention employs a touch sensitive screen to achieve this functionality.

Such action, in the prior art, would result in a single search being performed in the database of descriptive data, and a set of results being returned containing all cities in “The Netherlands” (i.e. the particular country selected or displayed at 34) beginning with (or containing) the phrase “Li”. This result set, or a part of it, for example the first two entries would be displayed in list format, in place of the previously displayed list 30 of most recently visited cities.

In accordance with the invention, two separate searches are conducted, the first being conducted within the descriptive data for cities, and a second search being conducted within the list of most recently visited cities, the results of both such searches being stored in memory, preferably adjacently and recalled for display in a juxtaposed manner such that the results from the second search within most recently visited cities are displayed atop the list of results from the first search of city descriptive data, that is other city names. The abridged or excerpted combined list is displayed at 48 in FIG. 5, the city entry “Lievelde” being the only city matching the search text “Li”, user-entered at 32, and the city “Lichtmis (Zwolle)” being the first of many other cities stored in the database. This excerpted list 48 can be expanded by pressing button 36 to display an extended list 48, as shown in FIG. 6 and subsequently scrolled using buttons 38, 40. As can be seen from FIG. 6, the lists appear seamless, despite the list of most recently visited cities only including a single entry, that is “Lievelde”. The only distinction to be made, or indication that the lists are different is that alphabetically, “Lievelde” is not alphabetically arranged with respect to “Lichtmis (Zwolle)”. The display of such lists is however seamless.

In FIGS. 7 and 8, further screen shots are provided in which the user-entered text in field 32 is shown as “Lie”, and in accordance with a particular aspect of the invention, the software performs only a search of the city descriptive data stored within the database when three or more characters are entered by the user. Therefore, in this case, the search function carried out by the software on the device reverts to its conventional prior art operation. Thus, in FIG. 8 an excerpt of the list of cities matching the text “Lie” is displayed, and this excerpted list can be more fully display by user selection of button 36, as shown in FIG. 8, and subsequently scrolled using button controls 38, 40. 

1. A personal navigation device comprising a display, memory, processing means, wireless signal reception means, and means for receiving user input, said memory including at a plurality of destination identifiers indicative of a number of recently visited destinations, and one or more databases containing digitized map data and descriptive data identifying features represented within said digitized map data, said personal navigation device including software capable of performing navigation between a current location determined from said wireless signals received, and a destination at least partially identified by said user input, said software including a facility for displaying one or more categories of destination which when selected causes said display of one or more destination identifiers of said recently visited destinations of that category in list format, and for performing a search within the descriptive data representative of said particular destination category in response to said user input, further comprising: means for causing a first search to be made of said descriptive data and a second search to be made of said destination identifiers, said first and second search being based on user input comprising one or more alphanumeric characters made during said display of said one or more destination identifiers of a particular category; means for storing results of each of said first and second searches into said memory; and means for displaying said results in a list, said list being available to said user for user selection of one or more of said results.
 2. The personal navigation device according to claim 1, further comprising means for partially displaying said results, said partial display including a control whereby a user can cause the list to be displayed more completely on said display.
 3. The personal navigation device according to claim 1, further comprising means for displaying said results in subsets of most recently visited destinations and of the database of the descriptive data, the subsets being those entries which include said user input characters.
 4. The personal navigation device according to claim 3, wherein said subsets are further listed according to most recently visited destinations.
 5. The personal navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the software causes the display of only the results of the first search if three or more characters are entered by the user.
 6. The personal navigation device according to claim 1, further comprising means for using said software to cause the display of the results of the first and second searches seamlessly and consecutively in expandable list format atop which are displayed the destination identifiers corresponding to most recently visited destinations from the first search followed by matching descriptive data of the particular destination type from the database.
 7. The personal navigation device according to claim 6, wherein the displayed results from the first and second searches is scrollable when expanded in the case where search results comprise more destination identifiers and descriptive data than can be displayed on the screen.
 8. The personal navigation device according to claim 1, further comprising means for storing at least one of cities, towns and villages as destination identifiers indicative of a number of recently visited destinations in said memory when an address, postcode or POI within a one of these localities is selected by a user when navigation thereto is required.
 9. The personal navigation device according to claim 1, further comprising means for maintaining destination identifiers for most recently visited cities, towns and villages.
 10. The personal navigation device according to claim 1, wherein only a predetermined number of destination identifiers indicative of most recently visited destination can be stored.
 11. A method of operating a personal navigation device comprising a display, memory, processing means, wireless signal reception means, and means for receiving user input, said method comprising the steps of: storing at least a predetermined number of destination identifiers indicative of a number of recently visited destinations in memory, together with one or more databases comprising digitized map data and descriptive data identifying features represented within said digitized map data, displaying one or more categories of destination and causing the display of one or more destination identifiers of the recently visited destinations of that category in list format when selected by a user, performing a first search of said descriptive data in response to a user input of one or more alphanumeric characters made during the display of said one or more destination identifiers of a particular destination category, performing a second search of the destination identifiers, also using the user-entered character data, and subsequently displaying the results from both searches in list format on the display of said device.
 12. A computer program comprising computer program code means adapted to perform all the steps of the method of claim 11, when run on a computer.
 13. The computer program of claim 12, embodied on or in a computer readable medium. 